Milking Cows

When we were kids, my brother Doug & I did “chores”. These chores weren’t just taking the garbage out but included hand milking a couple of cows and feeding a pen of calves. One of my memories of learning how to milk cows was that Dad & Mom each did it differently. Dad “dry milked” and Mom “wet milked”. To “wet milk” you simply squirted a little milk on your hand and rubbed it on the teat before milking so that it was wet and slippery. Dry milking is just what it sounds like. As I recall Dad and Mom could both get the bucket full in short order but there was always discussion about which method was more hygienic. I am guessing that hand milking cows is becoming a “lost art” in this country, but I’ll bet there are still lots of you who have milked a cow somewhere in your past. You might be interested in this video of a 32,000 cow dairy in the U.S. where you can watch the birth of some of the 80 calves born every day or the continuous milking parlour, etc. Perhaps a hint of the direction farming is heading?  http://tiny.cc/MBZfp

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